Moving, uplifting, and funny, Shoulder to Shoulder tells the real-life stories of men overcoming loneliness and social isolation. A top-flight ensemble of singers and musicians bring stories to life on stage in May 2025. Shoulder to Shoulder is produced in partnership with Men’s Sheds Cymru.
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WELCOME to Swansea City Opera. Since 2006, we’ve toured high-quality opera to venues throughout the UK. Our tours include many theatres that rarely programme opera. We aim to make the world of opera accessible to everyone.
Following successful tours in 2022 and 2023, from May 2025 onwards, we are touring Shoulder to Shoulder, which can be seen at Pontyberem Memorial Hall on Saturday 3rd May, Maesteg Town Hall on Friday 9th May and Llangadog Community Centre on Saturday 10th May
Shoulder to Shoulder – The Film, featuring the full opera, will be screened at 2025’s North America Festival of Wales in August. This year, the festival, which takes place in different North American cities each year, takes place in Ottawa, Canada. Shoulder to Shoulder – The Film will be screened Thursday 28th August. Shoulder to Shoulder – The Film features the acclaimed male voice choral group Only Men Aloud as the chorus. The film features interviews with Men’s Shed Cymru members about the charity’s work. Shoulder to Shoulder – The Film was made by AuntieMargaretFilms and filmed at Swansea’s Taliesin Arts Centre.
Through outreach work in 2020 – 2021, we developed a partnership with Men’s Sheds Cymru, which is part of the internationally acclaimed movement founded in Australia, which improves men’s well-being. Men’s Sheds Cymru supports men to develop friendships and new interests and works throughout Wales.
Brendan Wheatley, Co-Artistic Director of Swansea City Opera, created a libretto based on the stories of ‘Shedders’ which span the funny to the moving and thought-provoking. The opera was composed by composer and clarinettist Lenny Sayers, a member of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Shoulder to Shoulder’s ensemble features professional singers and musicians, mainly from Wales; many of whom sing and play in major opera houses, companies, and orchestras, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Welsh National Opera; English National Opera; Opera North; Scottish Opera, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Men’s Sheds Anthem sung by Only Men Aloud
After November 2023’s tour, the Men’s Sheds anthem was created to celebrate the world-wide Men’s Sheds movement. Sung by the internationally famous Welsh male choral group, Only Men Aloud. Composed by Lenny Sayers with lyrics by Brendan Wheatley with accompaniment by pianist Chris Williams. The anthem was recorded at the Acapela Studio near Cardiff in December 2023.
Our engagement work.
We believe music is a universal language. We believe opera is for everyone. This philosophy underpins the creation of Shoulder to Shoulder and earlier projects, including Tower, created with a mining community in South Wales.
Singing builds connections between people, develops self-confidence, and allows people to discover more about the craft of staging a professional opera. Working with local communities has become one of the most satisfying and inspiring elements of our work and something for which we’ve become renowned.
One of the highlights of touring opera is our work with local community choirs. They sing alongside our ensemble of professional singers and musicians in some of the world’s greatest operas, from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Verdi’s La Traviata to operas less frequently performed, such as Delibes’ Lakme.
Our international work.
In Wales and internationally, we’re building our reputation in engagement.
In 2019, we were thrilled to be the first Welsh arts organization to be funded by the British Council Cultural Protection Fund.
We developed Our Heritage, a unique programme in Lebanon, funded by the British Council’s £30 million Cultural Protection Fund, which collected the unique cultural heritage traditions and memories of Palestinian and Syrian refugees. There are now over 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon; many people have been displaced for half a generation making it vital that Syrian culture – from dance to singing and music – is preserved. Palestinian refugees first arrived in Lebanon during the 1940s. The Shatila refugee camp was established over 70 years ago, meaning new traditions of festivals, music, and oral history have developed over the years. You can read more about Our Heritage here.
We want to develop more partnerships with other Men’s Sheds Cymru groups and other community projects in both Wales and England. Swansea City Opera is keen to develop international collaborations building on the success of our British Council project.
If you’ve got a project idea that you’d like to talk to us about, please get in touch: enquiries@swanseacityopera.com
